I believe Mods are one of things that they fear the most, much more than piracy, maybe its even the reason why offline mode isnt allowed.

If they handled the game's code the players someone would craft something much better from it at a much faster rate, they would look like fools when a small group of modders would be able to add so much more features and content without the need to gather investors and comitees to see what financial impact a small change on the game's design would do, their bloated corporation design process cant keep up with Indies and Modders and they know it.

They already missed Dota 2, now they probably want to control everything about their games engines from now on.

If they handled the game's code the players someone would craft something much better from it at a much faster rate, they would look like fools when a small group of modders would be able to add so much more features and content without the need to gather investors and comitees to see what financial impact a small change on the game's design would do, their bloated corporation design process cant keep up with Indies and Modders and they know it.

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hahaha dude, you are so right. if the community was given the diablo 3 tools from blizzard, we would have the best ARPG within half a year. it would be a mixture of diablo 2, tl 2 and poe, all coded in diablo 3. and even the story would be better.

If they handled the game's code the players someone would craft something much better from it at a much faster rate, they would look like fools when a small group of modders would be able to add so much more features and content without the need to gather investors and comitees to see what financial impact a small change on the game's design would do, their bloated corporation design process cant keep up with Indies and Modders and they know it.

In my experience, almost all modders just redesign the game so that players are more godly and everything is easier. The initial rush is great but then after a few days there is no challenge and people quit.

Play Skyrim or any number of other games that allow mods. Most mods do not allow the player to be godly. Most are HUD changes or adding quests or adding areas, new dungeons, etc.

It is a developer's prerogative to allow or disallow mods. Although I will never understand why some do not allow them. For me, the Elder Scrolls series would not be still installed on my machine without mods. I still play Morrowind on occasion, mainly due to mods. WoW allows mods. But WoW allows for ongoing revenue too and that helps to support such things in terms of technical support, etc.

And it's not because some fan made mod will outshine Blizzard's game. Devs who allow mods aren't worried about that so why would Blizzard? No, I think it is due to the DRM issue that we have all talked about ad nauseum over the last couple of years. Online play affords Blizzard more control of their product and since the game is free to play, ongoing revenue is difficult to maintain. Mods add complexities and this seems to be something they want to avoid for Diablo.

Online play affords Blizzard more control of their product and since the game is free to play, ongoing revenue is difficult to maintain.

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1 - the game costs $60 to play, quite far from free
2 - the way these games get "ongoing revenue" is by being popular and well-liked so that people will continue buying those $60 boxes (plus future xpacs), somethings mods often help with.

I totally don't understand disallowing mods at it's a win-win for both fans and developers.

In my experience, almost all modders just redesign the game so that players are more godly and everything is easier. The initial rush is great but then after a few days there is no challenge and people quit.

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Games that are highly community modded end up being more challenging with more interesting choices in how you want to play the game. Oblivion was great for modding (Skyrim is the next game in the series) and the main mods for that game increased the difficulty. Then there are other games that are entirely mods, which off the top of my head Counterstrike and Dota 2 were both mods created off of other game's engines. BF2 was created in part due to the Desert Combat mod for BF1942.

I would bet most modders take offense to your statement. If someone made a "unofficial patch" for D2, it would be awesome.

I googled a neat article (first hit when you search "mods that turned into new game") that has some examples.

I meant as compared to WoW, which allows mods and which is also a Blizzard product. WoW has ongoing revenue so that makes it easier for Blizzard to give customer support. They do not support those mods but they know they're there and condone them.

Games that are highly community modded end up being more challenging with more interesting choices in how you want to play the game. Oblivion was great for modding (Skyrim is the next game in the series) and the main mods for that game increased the difficulty.

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Agreed. Mods give the user new content, new challenges, new visuals and yes, sometimes new armor, new cheats, etc. But the users know what they're downloading and placing in their game, so those choices are entirely up to them.

Let's clarify some things. WoW allows only UI mods. You can't change gameplay in ANY way.

D3 is an online game. I'm a developer. I can tell you one thing. Doing mod support which allows server side changes in gameplay is not easy. Torchlight 2 can get away with it, since they don't offer anything as monolithic as battle.net.

If D3 is to have mod support, it would have to drop "always online" mantra. Single player mods are much easier to implement. Anyway, the case is mute. They will NEVER allow that because of corporate politics. D3 follows MMO design model to certain extent. I don't recall any MMO games, which allowed you to change game rules.

"Play solo, hardcore and self-found and use about MP4. Getting through Inferno is silly hard.

The game is what you make of it at this point. If you want hard the option is there."

Try playing Chessmaster 500 ELO AI. Easy. Try 2000 ELO AI. Not so easy. There is a challenge to beat that. In D3, you must restrict yourself to not get bored. See the difference? It's like playing 500 ELO AI, with a self imposed rule that your first 10 moves will be random. Ridiculous, IMO.

"Play solo, hardcore and self-found and use about MP4. Getting through Inferno is silly hard.

The game is what you make of it at this point. If you want hard the option is there."

Try playing Chessmaster 500 ELO AI. Easy. Try 2000 ELO AI. Not so easy. There is a challenge to beat that. In D3, you must restrict yourself to not get bored. See the difference? It's like playing 500 ELO AI, with a self imposed rule that your first 10 moves will be random. Ridiculous, IMO.

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Hardcore, selffound and solo are nothing like doing random moves in chess. They are legit ways to play the game that fundementally changes how you play the game for most of the game. All doing 10 random moves in chess does is force you into a weird early position but you basically play the game the same way as without them.

ELO rating and MP setting are exactly the same system really, higher number means harder opponents.

I would be more interested in a Diablo 2 remade in the Diablo 3 engine.

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That presents a major issue of exporting a game that was built upon a more clunky engine to a more fluent one.

Quinqu said:

In D3, you must restrict yourself to not get bored.

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Isn't this the idea in every videogame? Playing the game a bit differently every time, choosing yourself what style you use. Even in pacman, I can choose if I want to go top left or bottom right first.

Of course, in RPGs, this is done on a much larger scale. Using a different class, build or items every time.

That presents a major issue of exporting a game that was built upon a more clunky engine to a more fluent one.

Isn't this the idea in every videogame? Playing the game a bit differently every time, choosing yourself what style you use. Even in pacman, I can choose if I want to go top left or bottom right first.

Of course, in RPGs, this is done on a much larger scale. Using a different class, build or items every time.

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No, it isn't. You are talking about EXPRESSING yourself, as opposed to restricting yourself.

In chess you can have your own style. You always want to win BADLY and don't limit yourself in any way, but some people mostly play 1d4, while others mostly 1e4.

Min-max is optimal only for very hardcore gamers, like Kripp. Some people just want to have mindless fun, others want cool story, yet others want enthralling atmosphere. It's not clear what is "optimal", in general case.

Yeah, but that's not particularly fun or self-expressive, which is why people impose restrictions on themselves as a way of expressing themselves and enjoying the game.

Restriction: no RMAH = more enjoyment
Restriction: self-found = more enjoyment (for some, not necessarily for all)
Restriction: HC = more enjoyment (for some, not necessarily for all)
Restriction: higher MP than you can faceroll = more enjoyment (for some, not necessarily for all)
Restriction: playing a class other than Barb = more enjoyment (for some, not necessarily for all)

etc.

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Again, you have a very hardcore mindset. You basically say: "harder and more challenging = more fun". This is NOT the case with many people who play video games. Explosive growth of casual gaming in recent years shows that perfectly.

Blizzard failed, because they catered more to casuals than hardcores. That's why hardcores, like you, have to cheat themselves to play this game. D3 suggests that it is for classic PC hardcore crowd, being in reality a classic console, sofa button masher.

Sorry but I really dont agree with self-restrictions. Its the game designers' job to create a challenging and well-rounded game, its not the players' job to keep twisting the game in weird ways for it to work.

If that was the case there was no need for hardcore mode, I mean... just delete your own character if it dies. Also, about self-found: the drops have been tuned for mass AH usage, so if people want to play Self-found, its okay, but its not the solution to the problem, there are still awful drops that blizzard has imposed on the players, just because someone is claiming to play "self-found" it didnt make the problem vanish, it also didnt give any depth to the game either, its not something to marvel at and think:
"Look how amazingly well designed diablo 3 is! Players can choose whenver to use the AH or Self-found! Blizzard has thought about everything!"

It doesnt work that way. If anything, it just makes D3 even more badly designed.